ESPN Drops “Hot Seat” Label on Vikings Exec
It took 31 months.
ESPN Drops “Hot Seat” Label on Vikings Exec
ESPN formally added the “hot seat” terminology to Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s job security on Monday, a tidbit tucked into an article about 2024 power rankings.
Adofo-Mensah recently drafted would-be franchise quarterback J.J. McCarthy in April, but according to ESPN, the selection did little to keep the young executive’s job safe.
“Who’s on the hot seat: GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. For understandable reasons, Adofo-Mensah embarked on a quarterback transition as he entered the third season of a four-year contract. But rookie J.J. McCarthy will miss the 2024 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, making Sam Darnold the likely starter,” ESPN’s Kevin Seifert wrote this week while Minnesota checked in as the league’s 23rd-best team entering 2024.
Adofo-Mensah also discovered EDGE rusher Dallas Turner in Round 1 of the draft, and adding him + McCarthy was nearly universally praised by Vikings fans.
Seifert added about Adofo-Mensah on the hot seat: “And after he used seven draft picks in April to maneuver for edge rusher Dallas Turner, Adofo-Mensah has only three picks in the 2025 draft to further improve the team. A bad season wouldn’t necessarily cost Adofo-Mensah his job, but it could inform owners Zygi and Mark Wilf’s decision on whether to extend his contract or let him enter its final season in 2025.”
Earlier this month, Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf addressed the futures of Adofo-Mensah and head coach, Kevin O’Connell. “We’re focused on the season ahead,” Wilf replied when asked about extensions for Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell. He also made it abundantly clear that he was happy with the team’s direction.
Wilf said about extensions specifically: “It’s not something we’re talking about at this point.”
Minnesota parted ways with former general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer in January 2022, hiring Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell shortly after. On the tandem’s watch, the Vikings have the NFL’s ninth-best win-loss record at 20-14 (.588).
However, Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell might have produced in a direction opposite to the norm. In 2022, Minnesota finished 13-4 before saying goodbye to veterans like Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, and Eric Kendricks, among others, winning the NFC North for the first time in five years. The franchise re-upped for 2023 with high hopes once again but fired up a 7-10 record, mainly because quarterback Kirk Cousins fell injured in Week 8. He missed the rest of the season with a torn Achilles.
In hindsight, though impossible to fix, Vikings fans probably would’ve preferred a 7-10 start to the Adofo-Mensah-O’Connell era, with a 13-4 follow-up. No cigar.
On the whole, it might be a little strange for Minnesota’s ownership to extend Adofo-Mensah or O’Connell now. Conventional logic suggests it will want to see how the 2024 draft class pans out or at least get a drop on McCarthy’s staying power in the sport. It also doesn’t help that McCarthy will encounter a redshirt year after tearing his meniscus nine days ago.
Adofo-Mensah is also haunted, at least from fans, by his first two draft picks back in 2022 — safety Lewis Cine and cornerback Andrew Booth. Cine is battling simply to make the 53-man roster this season, and Booth was jettisoned via trade to the Dallas Cowboys for a little-known cornerback, Nahshown Wright, earlier this month.
While it might be too soon for Adofo-Mensah to own the “hot seat” title, his job security basically boils down to McCarthy’s performance and maturation. It is unclear if a dreadful Vikings season in the ballpark of 4-13 or 5-12 would encourage the team’s ownership to extend Adofo-Mensan next offseason. Stay tuned.
But let it be known — ESPN’s classification is the first of its kind from a major outlet to plop Adofo-Mensah on the hot seat.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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